Steve's Blog

April 30, 2021 Flying Game Game Project Overview I wanted to do some work on a small, simple 3D game in Unity I could make within a week or so. My original focus is on player movement, and from there I decided to hone in on a flying game of some kind. I have been watching Thabeast721 on Twitch and he recently played Super Man 64 which I have also seen at Games Done Quick (GDQ) events and thought building off of and improving their flying controller could be a fun project. Player Controllers Controller #1 - Rotate Forward Axis My initial thoughts on a basic flying player controller was to have left/right rotate the player on the y-axis, up/down rotate the player on the x-axis, and a separate button to propel the player in their current forward direction. As a controller standard, I also tend to have the player's input be received in the Update method to receive as often as possible, but then output these inputs as movement in FixedUpdate to keep it consistent on...

April 27, 2021 Multiplayer Unreal Title: How to Make a Multiplayer Game in Unreal Engine 4 [Blueprint Tutorial] By: DevAddict Youtube - Tutorial Description: A tutorial extension to the previous Unreal platformer tutorial that shows multiplayer implementation. Summary This tutorial extends the previous tutorial on making a platformer in Unreal found here: Youtube - Lets Make a Platformer - Unreal Engine 4.26 Beginner Tutorial The original tutorial follows one created by Unreal with some extra steps added. This tutorial is an expansion made by DevAddict specifically to show how to add multiplayer to this project. Lesson 1: Introduction to Multiplayer Play Modes When going into Play Mode in Unreal, there are many options for testing and debugging multiplayer. Play Modes: Net Modes: Play as Offline (Standalone): (Default) You are the server Play as Listen Server: Editor acts as both the Server and the Client Play as Client: Editor acts solely as...

April 23, 2021 Dot Product Unity Project Vector Math References Dot Product Wiki Wikipedia - Link Falstad Dotproduct Online Visualizer Falstad Visualizer - Link Fig. 1: My Updated Visualizer at Work Overview I wanted to explore vector math as a refresher for myself while also creating ways to visualize it through Unity. The dot product seemed like a good focal point to start with since it is such a useful tool in game development but can be a bit strange to fully understand the full reach it has. I took a lot of inspiration from the Falstad visualizer on how to visually represent this. While similar to the Falstad visualizer, I wanted to create a 3D representation instead of a 2D one. I wanted to have a tool that creates two manueverable vectors that would show all the values of those vectors, as well as their dot product and the projected vector from one onto the other. While most of the math and systems behind this are practically identical in the 3D c...

April 22, 2021 Observer Pattern Game Dev Patterns Title: Observer Pattern - Game Programming Patterns in Unity & C# By: Jason Weimann Youtube - Tutorial Description: Introduction to the observer pattern and implementing it in Unity through C#. Overview This tutorial covers the basics of the observer pattern in game development with two ways of implementing it in Unity. The first approach is relatively simple just to establish the concept, whereas the second approach uses events with C# to create a more flexible system. Observer Pattern Basics An object, called the subject, maintains a list of its dependents, called observers, and notifies them automatically of any state changes (usually by calling one of their methods) Example Uses in Games: UI elements updating when data behind them changes Achievement systems Implementation #1: Inheriting Observer and Subject Classes Observer Class: Abstract class your observers will inherit from OnN...

April 15, 2021 Tutorial Unreal Title: Unreal Engine 4.26 Beginner's Tutorial: Make a Platformer Game By: DevAddict Youtube - Tutorial Description: A large tutorial focusing on fleshing out the functionality of a given project and assets in Unreal. Summary This was one of the tutorials from my "Intro to Unreal: Basics Tutorial Compilation" post. This ended up being a great introductory tutorial where the first half provides a lot of information on just the basics of moving around the Unreal editor and basic level building, and the second half delves into blueprints and how to read them, modify them, and creat your own. The focus is on building a 3D platformer with an Unreal learning project that is provided, and most of the basics for that type of game creation are all covered here. Notes and Lessons Learned from the Tutorial Keyboard Shortcuts End (while moving an actor): drops that actor directly to the ground plane below it ...

April 12, 2021 Ray Marching Unity Title: Coding Adventure: Ray Marching By: Sebastian Lague Youtube - Tutorial Description: Introduction to the concept of ray marching with some open available projects. Overview This video covers some of the basics of ray marching while also visualizing their approach and creating some interesting visual effects and renders with the math of signed distance along with ray marching logic. The major ray marching method they show is sphere tracing, which radiates circles/spheres out from a point until anything is collided with. Then, the point moves along the ray direction until it reaches the radius of that sphere projection and emits another sphere. This process is repeated until it radiates a very small threshold radius sphere, which is when a collision is determined. The resulting project made is available, and I think it would be very useful and interesting to explore. The Youtube video description also holds many lin...

April 8, 2021 Linear Algebra Vectors and Dot Product Title: Vector addition and basis vectors | Linear algebra makes sense Youtube - Link #1 Description: Introduction to this series and the basics of linear algebra and vectors. Title: The meaning of the dot product | Linear algebra makes sense Youtube - Link #2 Description: Deep dive into the dot product and what it represents and how to determine it. Overview I wanted to brush up on my vector math fundamentals, particularly with my understanding of the dot product and its geometric implications as it is something that comes up often in my game development path. While I am able to understand it when reading it and coding it for various projects, I wanted to build a more solid foundational understanding so that I could apply it more appropriately on my own. This video series has been very nice for refreshing my learning on these topics, as well as actually providing me a new way of looking at vec...

April 6, 2021 GDC 2014 Talk Camera Controller Title: GDC 2014 Talk - 50 Game Camera Mistakes Youtube - Link Description: A talk on common issues with camera controllers game developers make and how to avoid them. Overview As I was fixing some issues I had with my Unity camera for my architecture project, I came across this talk and thought it would be useful moving forward to understand camera controllers in games in general. It's a bit older, but it should still be very useful for getting some tips for establishing a base understanding of some issues you may run into starting a camera controller.